Une, Deux, Trois
by Prelude of Darkness
Summary: With the arrival of two mysterious girls in her life, Yuffie, the rest of AVALANCHE and the Turks find themselves embarking on a journey to kill a strangely familiar enemy. [Rated for Reno and Cid's language] [Reffie] [OC alert]
1. Returns and Revenge

**_Chapter 1 - Returns and Revenge_**

**_DISCLAIMER: Ying, Yang and Asamiya © Eville/Yoru, the rest Square Enix. Leave us alone._**

**_Chappy done by Eville_**

**__**

**_

* * *

_**

**__**

"I suggest you just leave her alone. The most she'd live for is a few hours. Her situation is critical."

"But -"

"She won't live. She's better off isolated."

"I thank you for your help, doctor."

"My pleasure."

She could barely make out what they were talking about. There was only one subject they could talk about anyway. Her.

On her silken spreads she laid, tears dripping down her face, tendrils of silver hair fanned out on the pillow behind her. She was practically paralyzed; she couldn't move any part of her body, only her eyes could blink and her mouth could barely whisper.

"Why me?" she thought to herself, hot tears of injustice welling up in her eyes. It was an apt but precise thought. Her life had been short. She had been on the face of Earth for 18 short years, and all of it was about to be robbed from her in just a few hours. Why couldn't she be normal? Why couldn't she escape from the looming thresholds of death? Why was she the chosen one? She was born into a comfortable life and why couldn't she live to enjoy it? Then, as if in answer, an evil, malevolent voice heralded her into doom.

"_You will be given a second life to live."_

"I... will?"

"_Yes, you will. I am your true mother, the Crisis of the Skies. Now... awaken, Sephiris!"_

And once again he could see the world... through her eyes.

* * *

Altosuna was in total chaos. Dead bodies littered the ground; destruction was common to the eye. Buildings were alight with burning embers and the ground was black, blacker than black. Yang Kisagari kneeled on the charred cement of the town courtyard, surrounded by furious tongues of fire, summing up all the White Magic she could summon, hands placed at her mother's wounds. Ying was at her side, incapable of doing anything for all she was good at was Black Magic. 

Yang tried to course the healing spell into her mother's gash, feeling the familiar sensation tingle through her fingers, white sparks playing around the wound, finally setting in. A sliver of life worked its way into her mother, whose brown, hazel eyes were lit by a faint mist. Her pale lips twisted into a weak smile of acknowledgement upon sight of her two daughters.

"Daughters" her dry voice rasped in Wutaian, a tongue she had not used for a long while.

"Mother" the two girls said in unison, unaware of the same language they had used in response.

"I wish that... you two will travel to the country of Wutai... and look for a Yuffie Kisagari... and tell her... tell her..."

The twins were struck by a moment of fear, afraid that their mother might lose it once again.

"Tell her that... Asamiya Kisagari will always remember her, even if... she's no longer her" With those final words, she parted ways with her daughters forever. What the last word was, she would never live to say again...

* * *

Ying took her Princess Blade firmly in one hand, Adamantine Sai in the other. Brushing a quiff of raven black hair away from her pallid face, she wandered towards the charred remains of Altosuna.

"It's now or never," she said to herself in Wutaian.

Maybe leaving Yang at the "campsite" alone wasn't such a great idea, but she had to take revenge on the captor of her mother's life. She was usually cold and aloof, just as her name Ying suggested, but this had gone too far. Just as she entered the stone courtyard, a sinister voice rang out tauntingly, "You shouldn't be up that late, young lady."

Her head swiveled around. Nothing. For a moment or two she was confused, but a figure in black hovered in mid-air, a smug look on its façade.

"I warn you - I'm armed!" She said in her most confident tone, but even to herself she sounded unsure.

"Oh? So am I." The figure landed gracefully onto the gravel flooring and walked up to Ying's bewildered form. The waterfall of silver hair fluttered in the breeze, bathed in the glow of the full moon. The eyes were abnormal: They were a glowing green-blue which, when reflecting the moonlight, looked both demonic and catlike at the same time. The pale skin was devoid of any blemishes. Tall and beautiful, she looked almost harmless, if not for her fearsome eyes.

Ying grimaced. This girl was... familiar. "Aren't you...?" Who was it? The name was practically flashing in neon colours right in front of her very eyes, but it didn't disclose itself.

"There is no need to know who I am. I know you want revenge."

"Well, duh!" Ying spat, losing control of her bottled-up anger, "You killed my mother, killed almost the whole town and... and... god knows what else! I'm gonna get you for all of that, right now!" With that, she raised the Princess Blade into the air and screamed, "LIGHTNING 3!" A loud rumble of thunder was heard and it rained hard upon the charred land, penetrating the tense atmosphere and a flash of light swiftly shot down from the sky and lightspeeded towards its target.

Amidst the sound of thunder, a voice came from behind her. "Impressive. Now... say 'ah'...!" Ying turned around, only to see her opponent charging towards her, a long six-foot blade pointed in her direction. Relying on her speed she dodged the strike and pushed her Adamantine Sai into the blade's force, which stopped her attacker's advance.

"I admire your skill. No one could escape me alive. Unfortunately, I have more... important matters to attend to." The girl materialized her sword into thin air, stared at Ying stoically and flew off into the air.

"Somehow I _knew_ you'd come back here... Ying." Yang was smirking at her in a completely obnoxious way, but continued with a grim face, "She'll probably be hot on our tracks. Best we find where Wutai is, then make like a clam, scram and find help."

* * *

Note: If you wondering about this... _'She was usually cold and aloof, **just as her name Ying suggested**, but this had gone too far.'_ From Mandarin, Ying translates into 'shadow'.

O.O What was that? What did I do? Well, yeah, R&R, no flames, cc please. Ciao!


	2. Uninvited Guests

_**Chapter 2 - Uninvited Guests**_

_**DISCLAIMER: So, would you believe me if I said FF7 belonged to Eville and Yoru? Yeah, wishful thinking, huh? But, some things are © us, namely the plot, our original characters (cough like it or not)... and well, that's all. Unfortunately.**_

_**A/N: squeaks We got reviews! And I was expecting this to get ignored! Yay! Well, this time it's Yoru. Try not to expect as much from me as Eville, okay? I haven't got the massive brain space one uses to store all that vocabulary that she has. T.T Enough of my whining - on with the story! **_

**

* * *

**

_"Daughters..." her dry voice rasped in Wutaian, a tongue she had not used for a long while._

_"Mother..." the two girls said in unison, unaware of the same language they had used in response._

_"I wish that... you two would travel to the country of Wutai... and look for a Yuffie Kisagari... and tell her... tell her..."_

_The twins were struck by a moment of fear, afraid that their mother might lose it once again._

_"Tell her that... Asamiya Kisagari will always remember her, even if... she's no longer her..." With those final words, she parted ways with her daughters forever. What the last word was, she would never live to say again..._

"Having fun?"

Yang pushed a stray tendril of her dark hair behind her ear automatically, and heaving herself up from the railing, she turned around and stared at her sister pointedly. She replied sweetly, a very forced smile playing on her lips, albeit wincing as her stomach did a sudden, violent flip, "Oh, I'm having fun, all right. Don't worry about me, I haven't had this much fun since - urk..."

She then resumed her position, upper-body sticking out over the rusty, steel railing, looking out over the endless boundaries of the azure sea. Pity she had to litter it with whatever contents were left in her weak stomach. Yang tried her best to keep what was left of her miserable lunch in, but to no avail. She let out a loud, retching noise to which Ying wrinkled her nose disgustedly.

"I checked with the captain - he says we'll be reaching Wutai in a few hours."

Ying walked away briskly, and had stridden less than a few metres from where her twin sister stood puking the life out of herself, when she heard a long-suffering sigh amidst the morose, gagging sounds.

* * *

_A small tug on his sleeve which he barely noticed. Lord Godo Kisaragi, ruler of the then prosperous country, Wutai, turned to look at his daughter with sad but patient eyes, willing her to voice the question he knew she would ask one day, ever since a particular incident which had happened four years ago._

_A timid-looking Yuffie Kisaragi shuffled her feet anxiously, staring down at the floor as she did whenever she would talk to her father. She was rebellious, mischievous, and as irritating a prankster a girl of six years could be, and yet... It was an unspoken and also a well-known fact that her father was not one to be trifled with, and she knew it. Oh, she knew it all right - had gotten the fact drilled into her head by Staniv one time too many. She drew in a sharp intake of breath._

_"When I asked Staniv where Mama had gone - 'cos, Daddy, everyone else has a mom - he told me Mama had died when I was four years ago, but when I asked him why, he wouldn't answer! He said, he said... it wasn't for him to tell me..." She looked up, her eyes full of childish innocence, and asked, her voice a mere whisper, as if afraid to raise her voice, "Daddy... how did Mama die?"_

_Godo emitted a long, deliberate sigh. He would have to question Staniv about this later, close as he might be to his Yuffie, he should not have - in any case at all - revealed this to her. The lie he then told was one he had rehearsed countless times... each time praying to Leviathan he might never have to use it..._

Then, two clashing voices echoed in her sleeping, unconscious mind, one feminine but hoarse... saying aloud her very last words before death. The other she recognized, it was her father's... full of pity and sadness for the supposed loss of a loved one. Both mentioned _her_ name.

_"Your mother, Asamiya Kisaragi, died a heroine's death on the battlefield. She died... trying to preserve the honour and glory of our country..."_

"_Daughters..._ _I wish that... you two would travel to the country of Wutai... and look for a Yuffie Kisagari... and tell her... tell her... Tell her that... Asamiya Kisagari will always remember her, even if... she's no longer her..."_

And suddenly, the afore-mentioned daughter's eyes flickered open, revealing a pair of fearful, grey orbs staring up uncomprehendingly at the ceiling. She put a pale, shaking hand to her forehead, and then with her voice thick with sleep, she murmured softly, almost disbelievingly, to herself, interrupting the lulling silence of her room, "What the _hell_ was that all about...?"

And for the first time in two years, she felt _very_ alone.

A very dishevelled Yuffie Kisaragi got up slowly from the warm sheets of her futon, reluctant to discard the comfort of sleep, and sighed. She had been getting very weird dreams lately - not the usual, meaningless ones which she could never remember, nor the horrible, grotesque nightmares she could never forget. Just... really strange dreams that always seemed to re-play like a broken record _every single night_... until that night.

Yuffie had never been more confused - weren't dreams just meaningless visions your brain conjured up during the night? Mystical illusions, fantasies... but never memories. And yet, that night, she had dreamed of an event happening almost twelve years ago, so long ago, in fact, that she was surprised she could even remember. It was a grave matter to Godo, she knew, but how could she feel any grief when her mother had died when she was two...?

There had been another dream, though, and _that_ had been very different.

A slim, matured woman sprawled out on the charred ground, although seemingly in her early forties, was the epitome of elegance. Two pretty girls crouched down at her side... their features were very similar - both had long, sleek, jet-black hair, looking a few years younger than Yuffie herself. They might have been sisters, but she couldn't have been certain...

In fact, now that she thought of it, all three women looked Wutaian, from their dark-coloured hair, to their almond-shaped eyes... and they even spoke in her own tongue! Their Wutaian was spoken fluently, although tainted with a strange accent Yuffie, try as she might, could not place...

'_Crap... major headache coming on._' Yuffie squeezed her eyes tightly shut and massaged her temples. It was probably because Yuffie Kisaragi was not exactly, and never would be, a morning person. A cup of _very_ strong coffee would get rid of it, like it always did... caffeine usually worked wonders for stupid, sudden, head-splitting headaches like this one.

The first rays of the morning had already filtered through the blinds of her window. Pulling the blinds open, she squinted as the sunlight hit her eyes, aggravating her headache even more.

She made a mental note to take a few painkillers on top of the damned coffee.

* * *

Roughly 3 kilometres away from Wutai, a certain Ying Kisaragi was having a similar headache to that of Yuffie's. Not as major, and for a completely different reason, but all in all, it was a headache.

Ying, who was very annoyed at the moment, was trying to make some sense of a supposed map of the continent of Wutai. Yang peered over her shoulder and exclaimed gleefully, "See, I told you we were lost! But you wouldn't believe me, would you?"

Ying rotated the map a hundred-and-eighty degrees, tilting her head and squinting to scrutinize the offending object, before remarking curtly, "Firstly, I don't see how you can sound so happy if we _are_ lost... which for the fourth time, by the way, we are _not_. And secondly, if we _were_ lost - exactly whose fault would it be, hmm?" She glared at her twin sister, index finger jabbing at the severely wrinkled piece of paper, Yang's illegible scribbles adorning it.

Yang stuck out her chin in defiance, her voice indignant, "We were in a rush, Ying! Be grateful I even thought to draw a map! Besides, it's that captain-person's fault for docking at gods-know-where - !"

"A map? It hardly looks like a map, Yang. More like a three-year-old's scribbles. Oh, and anyway, I highly commend your efforts in trying to push the blame onto someone else. How _typical_ of you."

Although she hated to admit it, Yang _was_ actually right for once. When one tries to hitch a ride via a cargo ship by threatening the helmsman with a bunch of lethal-looking swords, one can be sure that the poor man was bound to be angry. And angry he was. Indignant enough, maybe, to dock at the continent itself, but not _anywhere_ close to where the actual place was.

'_Fortunately for him, and unfortunately for us, that was a pretty smart move_,' she thought to herself grimly, '_especially when Yang and myself have never travelled outside Altosuna... and we're probably as useful as dummies when it comes to a situation like this..._'

"Whatever, Ying. All I have to say is, damn Wutai for having such a bloody long-winded route," Yang replied, folding her arms as if to say 'end of conversation - no discussion'.

Ying almost smirked - it wasn't like Yang to give up during one of their daily squabbles, in fact, it was highly abnormal behaviour for her. But then, these days had been anything but the norm... shaking her head to rid herself of the thought, she resumed her focus on the so-called map.

"Okay. I think I've found where we are on the map - if we continue on straight, and come to a bridge eventually, then we should be in the right place... Yang?" She called out to her sister, who was lying spread-eagled, resembling a little kid making snow angels, on the seemingly endless stretches of grassy field. She rolled her eyes, walked up to her sister and hauled her up by her arms effortlessly.

"Aw, come on... why can't I rest for five minutes or something? We've been travelling since the last few hours already!"

Ying shook her head in irritation, and walked on, leaving Yang to catch up with yells of '_Wait up, you impatient freak!_' - she wasn't about to get into another fight again. Her headache, instead of receding, was hurting worse either due to Yang's constant complaining or the questions swarming in her head. The most prominent one being, _who the hell was her mother's murderer_? The name was at the tip of her tongue... and yet she just could not remember. Infuriating. Her mother had just been murdered by an unearthly beauty. _Killed _at the hands of a frustratingly familliar cold-blooded murderess... and worst of all, and she couldn't even recall her damned name, let alone avenge her mother...

And the more she thought about it, the less everything seemed to make sense... why had her mother told her to look for a Yuffie Kisaragi? Who was she? Could she help? And how was she related to her mother? '_Maybe_,' she thought wanly, looking down at her tattered, travel-worn shoes, '_she's just someone who can provide accommodation while we work out a plan or something. Which isn't entirely comforting considering the deep shit we've gotten ourselves into._'

It was at this moment that Yang decided to break the comforting, but very rare, silence. She ventured thoughtfully, "Will you miss it, Ying?"

Ying snorted, raising her eyebrow, "What - miss your senseless chattering? I'm really sorry to tell you this, but no - not at all."

"I wasn't talking about that." She rolled her eyes, as if her question referred to the most obvious thing on the Planet. She then stated something, her voice barely audible, her features softening slightly, "I meant... not having Mama around anymore..."

Ying didn't know what to say - part of her wanted to just slap Yang around the face and reply angrily, "_What do you think?!_" and the other part of her told her to just shut up, ignore her, and move on. The latter was frequently used when it came to Yang's regular mood swings and her weird questions, so she decided to trust her female intuition - '_don't reply, just move on. Your mother's last wishes were for you to get to Wutai, and the best thing you can do after failing to avenge her is to do what she requested on the verge of death._'

* * *

Yang inwardly kicked herself. It had been a stupid question. Stupid, stupid question. She wasn't even sure herself what had possessed her to ask it. Her stupid mouth, which seemed to have a mind of its own then, had just infuriatingly blurted out those simple words... like that.

To anyone else, it was most probably a distinctly innocent question, but to Ying, she knew, was probably very cruel. And yet, Yang was so exhausted her brain probably wasn't even working right. She was glad, however, about the fact that there had been very few encounters with beasts or monsters or deformed boogie-monsters. And even if there were, Ying took care of them with one mighty sweep of her Princess Blade without Yang having to do anything. Easy.

She watched with confusion as the afore-mentioned sister took her long strides down, she noticed, grass that was starting to get much greener as they walked. She had half-expected her sister to chew her head off for asking such a moronic question, and she would definitely understand... but she had chosen to ignore her. And that wasn't a very much better reaction, to say the least.

After about ten minutes of silence, except for the purposeful sounds of her shoes slap-slapping on the ground, her eyes widened as she approached and caught sight of a huge, five-storied pagoda towering above a few oriental-looking buildings. Her voice came out as a squeak as she asked, dreams of a warm bed and good food threatening to overcome her senses, "Ying! Is that Wutai?"

Ying replied frostily, "Yes."

Yang, ignoring her sister's far from warm reply, had never been so glad to see what she remembered as "a stupid ol' pagoda in south Altosuna" which her mother had always brought her to pray at. To those weird, scary, non-existent deity-statue-things. Right there and then, it was immediately re-christened as 'a pagoda too beautiful and majestic for words'. No prizes to who manages to guess why.

* * *

"This should be the place, according to the guy in the bar..."

Yang wasn't listening. She had almost keeled over from hunger, and yet her sister had still insisted that finding this Yuffie Kisaragi was the main priority. Who gave a damn about this Yuffie-person, anyway? She definitely didn't. All she knew was that the food in Wutai was good (from various recommendations and her own nose), and that she was _hungry_.

And what was with the people in Wutai? At the mention of 'Yuffie Kisaragi', they would either freak out, have their eyes pop out (she found this strangely amusing), or just plain ignored Ying and herself. This Yuffie must have been one hell of a freaky person in order for them to be so scared - only _one _guy, albeit a little drunk, had revealed where Yuffie Kisaragi was staying...

_"Oh, that princess-chick? I heard she got sick of Godo's incessant yapping and decided to move out when she was fifteen... she stays in that house at the far end of eastern Wutai. I think."_

_He had scratched his head, and then they thought they had lost him for awhile when he didn't continue. Then he had suddenly piped up again._

_"But then I also heard she went out exploring or something a year later... hey, where're you going?"_

By then they had immediately scurried out of that bar - what was it called? Tortoise Heaven or something to that effect, and then headed to the east.

And there they were.

Yang, who had been lost in thought, asked promptly, "Hey, what do you think he meant by 'princess-chick'? And _fifteen_?! How recent do you think that is? Because if she _is_ fifteen, she'll be younger than us!" Ying made no reply, and lifted her hand to knock the door.

And then, both of them got the shock of their lives when a high-pitched voice bellowed (if that was even possible) from the other side of the wall, "_If you're those fucking tax-collectors, you can bloody well get lost, 'cos I sure as hell ain't paying, you hear?!_"

A grin crept up onto Yang's face as she remarked, forgetting her hunger, "Hmm, not too friendly, huh? Are you sure we've gotten the right person, Ying?" Then she turned back to the door, and raised her voice a little before saying sarcastically, "No, ma'am, we're from the Madame Chocobo Cleaning Service." This earned a stare from Ying, who was still giving Yang the silent treatment.

"Oh. Not tax-collectors, but a lunatic. Yay."

"Wait!" This time Ying spoke, who was a little desperate by then, "Please... do you know an Asamiya Kisaragi?"

This was met with a clash, which suspiciously sounded like something breaking, and then the supposed Yuffie's voice swearing. The door clicked open, and a pair of familiar grey eyes looked stared at them. Then the door creaked open half-way, probably due to un-oiled, rusty hinges, and the young lady standing in front of them asked, her tone shockingly different from just a few minutes ago... as if somewhat subdued, "Who the hell are you, and how do you fucking know Asamiya Kisaragi?"

And if Ying Kisaragi was expecting a well-mannered woman to be the Yuffie Kisaragi they had suffered for hours to look for, she had never been more wrong.

* * *

"Wait! Please... do you know an Asamiya Kisaragi?"

Yuffie was too shocked to even notice the change in the tax-collector/ cleaning service-person/ lunatic's voice. She dropped the cup of coffee she had been holding in her hands in her surprise, cursing loudly as the shards landed on her bare foot. A flurry of thoughts swept past in her mind...

_Everyone had been, by Godo's word, forbidden to talk about her mother after her death._

_These days, no one even knew or even remembered her mother's death anymore._

_Her identity was known throughout Wutai, and people never dared to approach her._

_So what would anyone who was sane enough be doing here?_

She dazedly stepped past the broken glass shards of her cup and padded over to the door, unlatching it. Two girls of Wutaian ethnicity stood on the porch - they were obviously twins. She seemed to faintly remember them... or maybe it was just her. She would have called them small and petite girls that could have been knocked down easily by a strong breeze, who were surprisingly of more delicate build than herself, if she hadn't taken note of their weapons...

One had a huge grin plastered on her sharply defined face, cocoa-brown eyes twinkling with mischief. Yuffie recognized that look. Her ebony hair, which would have resembled her own before she had headed out of Wutai and gotten it sun-bleached, had been tied back into a loose plait which slung casually over her shoulder. Twin rapiers with each an intricate-looking grip hung loosely in their sheaths. She was actually quite surprised that she used rapiers as weapons, for most Wutaians used either shuriken or long swords.

The other had an air of aloofness around her, and seemed to be very different in character, if not looks, from her sister. Her eyes of russet did not have the warmth her sister had, and had a sense of maturity where she lacked in friendliness. One of her two swords looked remotely familiar to Yuffie, it slightly resembled the one hanging on the wall of Godo's house - a short sword with Wutaian characters engraved on its blade. She couldn't make the characters out clearly as they were half-hidden by its sheaf, but she knew it was probably some stupid poetic Wutaian idiom. The other sword she couldn't recognize. It was also short, and resembled a trident with a long blade in the middle, and two curved quillions at each side. She guessed the quillions were to protect her hand from being cut - which was quite practical.

She opened the door wider and asked pointedly, although the curiosity on her face betrayed her, "Who the hell are you, and how do you know Asamiya Kisaragi?"

The more mature-looking of the two gave Yuffie an equally pointed stare, and said, "May we come in, please? We've been travelling for the past few hours, and would appreciate it very much if we could rest in your house for a while."

'_Travelling for a few hours...? How far could they have been? After all, they do look like they're from Wutai..._'

Yuffie blinked, and then stepped aside to allow the two strangers to come in. With a small shrug, she chirped brightly, "Well, make yourselves at home, and, uh... don't mind the mess. I'll get drinks for you."

"There isn't any need..." she was elbowed in the side by the one with the elfin expression, and the latter replied brightly, "Thanks!"

While Yuffie was preparing drinks for the three of them, Yang briefly examined the house. It was dimly lighted, and was oriental-looking - furniture decorated with calligraphy and traditional Wutaian ornaments and trinkets. It was nothing unusual, except for the fact that it was incredibly messy - shuriken laying about on the parquet floor, stools and pillows recklessly placed around the house. She could see stairs that led down to the basement, which was where Yuffie had gone to get the drinks for them, she supposed. Separating Ying and herself and a corner set aside as her sleeping-quarters was a screen with a painting of beautiful scenery and Wutaian characters written with elegant, deft strokes.

Yuffie emerged into the 'living room' a few minutes later and handed the glasses to them. She dragged out one of the stools to the wooden table in the middle of the house, and motioned the two awkwardly standing in front of her to do the same, and then with a bright smile on her face (although none of them could really tell if it was forced or not), she said, "We-ell, let's get to the point. You should already know who I am if you came to look for me, and if you know my mother. Now, who are _you_?"

The one who had gratefully accepted the offer of a drink was the first one to react. "_What? Your_ mother? Asamiya Kisaragi is _our_ -" She was cut off by the other girl, who replied politely, "I'm Ying Kisaragi, and this is my twin sister, Yang Kisaragi. And actually, no, we don't exactly know who you are... exactly."

"Oh, shut up. You're from the Kisaragi clan and you don't know who _I _am?" Yuffie paused, as if then digesting the definition of her own words. "You're a Kisaragi. But Godo and I are the last remaining descendants of the Kisaragi bloodline!"

She got up immediately and backed away from them, knocking over the stool in her shock, hand reaching for a strangely oversized shuriken which was resting in a corner - it resembled the one Ying and Yang's mother had used to defend herself when she was alive. In what seemed like a millisecond, she was in an attacking stance, and she snarled rather threateningly for a young woman the size of herself, "How _dare_ you! You're impostors. Get out. _Now. _Or I attack." She gestured at the lethal looking blades of her weapon.

Yang also stood up on pure instinct, her own chair drawing backwards with a loud screech, eyes widening as she tried hastily to explain, "No! We're really -"

Yuffie shook her head vigorously, tendrils of her short chocolate-brown hair slapping viciously at her face, and continued in the same dangerous tone, her words deliberate, "Whatever, I don't believe you. Just... get out!"

Yang paused, and then started again, "You wanted to know how we knew Asamiya Kisaragi, didn't you?"

Yuffie folded her arms and gave them her patented grin, "Come on... you'll have to do better than _that _if you wanted to fool me. The older citizens of Wutai all know about my mother's death. It would've been so easy if you wanted to trick me... only that you're the only ones who are dumb enough to come up to my doorstep and mention my mother's name!"

Ying finally spoke up, her voice indifferent, "Then why did you let us into your house in the first place?"

It was probably just Ying and Yang's luck that they didn't know about Yuffie's infamous temper, and then had managed to provoke her, although unintentionally, enough to make her just lose it.

"Because... because, well, I was _stupid_ enough to think that you actually knew my mother! And that... someone wasn't lying for _once_." And then a mutter - an afterthought, her tone self-disgusted, "Oh gawd, I am _so_ losing my touch!"

"Fine, then. Why do you think we're lying?"

Yang could definitely feel the tension mounting as Yuffie and Ying eyed each other, frustration and anger showing clearly on their faces, and all she could do was cross her fingers and to... wait. Her sister had always been the expert at reasoning, and yet, she could understand why Yuffie didn't trust the both of them...

She put a finger to her chin and mock-pondered, "Hmm... I don't know. Because I have a really powerful father who can do about anything you want - if you get to him through me?"

Then Yang interjected impatiently, throwing her arms up in the air, "What will it take to make you believe us? Why can't you just listen to what we have to say?"

Yuffie took her eyes off the twins, and it was the first time Yang could see the concentration etched onto her face that day, as if undecided whether or not to trust them.

She then raised her hands in mock defeat, and said with another of her shrugs, "Okay, okay. I'll listen. But make it quick." After that, she plopped back down onto the cushioned three-legged chair, still tightly gripping onto her Conformer and resumed her original slumped position, except she was now glaring at the both of them.

Yang raised her eyebrow at Yuffie's sudden change in mind, and sat down opposite her. Ying then continued, visibly shaken by the earlier incident.

"As I was saying... we still don't exactly know who you are."

Yuffie glared exasperatedly at them, and then replied after a long pause in a nonchalant, sing-song voice, "Gawd, have you been living under a rock or something? Yuffie Kisaragi, also known as _Yue Fei, _but that's in Wutaian. Daughter of Godo and Asamiya Kisaragi, which makes me the heiress to Wutai, even though I don't _want_ to rule Wutai. When I was sixteen, I helped to save the world from the evil clutches of Sephiroth and that Jenova-thing. Two years later, I'm here. Does _that_ pretty much summarize my whole life for you?"

Another pregnant pause as the twins tried to digest the breath-taking information they had just been told, and suddenly, an unanticipated gravely voice intoned behind her, making a very unexpected reply to Yuffie's sarcastic question.

"Well, Miss Yuffie. To answer your previous question - no, I'm afraid that it doesn't, exactly."

Yuffie gasped and her head swivelled around, her voice coming out a little strangled, so that for a moment she couldn't even recognise her own voice, as she caught sight of the familiar, fatherly figure.

"Staniv?"

* * *

A/N: Knowing me, I'll probably turn this into a rant. Anyways, thanks to all unknown readers for, well... reading. Please review - authors survive on feedback.

Um, well. About Ying and Yang's weapons, Eville just _had_ to give me the task of describing it. Because I'm stupid, and I have absolutely no idea about these kind of things, please forgive me if I've described anything wrongly. Drop me an email, and I'll try to fix it.

If Yuffie seems a little OOC to you, well, fret not... for our 16-yr-old brat will come back when she's rid of all those massive headaches of hers! (Whether you like it or not. -cackles-)


End file.
